French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday his phone calls with USPresident Donald Trump and other world leaders were just likesausages: better not explain what's inside.
During a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Macron was asked about a CNN report on Monday saying that a phone call between the French leader and Trump last week had been "terrible."
Borrowing a famous quote from 19th-century Prussian statesman Otto von Bismarck, Macron summed up his policy of refraining from making off-the-record comments about his conversations with other world leaders.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu echoed the need for confidentiality.
A readout from the French presidency of Macron's call with Trump last week said the 40-year old president had told Trump that his decision to slap tariffs on the exports of USallies were both "illegal" and a "mistake."
The shorter White House readout of the same call said the conversation had focused on trade and immigration, without elaborating.
Macron, appalled by his predecessor Francois Hollande's frequent off-the-record comments to journalists, has kept the press at a distance since his election last year and banned his aides from giving behind-the-scenes accounts of his presidency.
He said on Tuesday that he would have a "useful" and "frank" exchange with Trump at the next G7 summit in Canada on June 7-8 about both issues on which they agree and those where they disagree.